One Cold Night
by Kuroi Ookami
Summary: (just for one word, I'll play it safe and go PG) But any way. A simple one-shot a friend encouraged me to write. Older Rin-Sess coughFluffycough


Standard disclaimer shit: I don't own Inuyasha the Series, or the Manga. Quite literally. (I really ought to make a stamp for the disclaimer.)  
  
Summary: Just a simple one shot that is playing itself over and over in my head. Thanks to My Love Inuyasha for the encouragement to get it onto paper- er, what ever you want to call this...  
  
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Rin performed her evening ritual the same as she had every night for the last ten years-her years with Sesshoumaru-sama. A careful wash in a nearby stream, far enough away from where ever they were camped for a sense of propriety, close enough for help should the need arise. She hadn't forgotten her encounter years previous with Naraku.  
  
She half growled as she remembered that. "Evil man. What made him think he was so high and mighty?" She climbed out of the heated pool with reluctance, looking at the monkeys that had come to bathe as well. She hadn't minded sharing the heated pool in the winter time-they needed a place to warm up as well. Quietly she slipped into under garments and a loose pair of pants, then secured a kimono-like tunic over her undershirt. She sighed heavily, musing to herself as she walked over to a nearby stone to plait her hair.  
  
She had stumbled upon their shelter-quite literally, tripping over a root in the snow-earlier in the day. Jaken had laughed, hobbling over to her to tap her lightly on the head with that staff of his, and she had sniffed and told him to shut up and go away. That was nothing unusual. What was unusual was Sesshoumaru-sama. She had caught him chuckling as he looked on, just before he turned on his heel and continued to walk on. "He's never done that before." She stood then, her long hair plaited and coiled to keep her from sitting on it. She trudged through the snow, cursing the elements as she usually did during the wintertime.  
  
"Problem, Rin?" It was Jaken, emerging from the cave entrance, grinning at her.  
  
"Shut up, Jaken." She shook the snow that had started to fall from her hair, coming inside. She could tell it was going to be a long cold night- already she was beginning to shiver, and it wasn't even nightfall. She grinned at him nonetheless as he started the fire and she brought out a teapot. "Though your stick is actually coming in handy for a change-ow." She rubbed her head where he had whacked her.  
  
"It comes in handy for other things to." He smirked, settling against a wall of the cave as he watched her sigh and prepare tea for them.  
  
"I wonder where Sesshoumaru-sama has gone?"  
  
"He said he had some business to take care of."  
  
"Not Kagura causing trouble again?"  
  
"Nay, Rin. I think it more to do with his half brother and Kikyou-sama and Kagome."  
  
"Ah." She poured them both a cup, then stared at the liquid for a few seconds. "It's been nine years, why hasn't Kikyou-sama finally gone on and why isn't Kagome-chan back home?"  
  
"Because both Inuyasha and Kikyou manage to find their way to her time."  
  
"Let me guess, Kikyou to finally regain 'her' soul, and Inuyasha to-what, mate? Keep an eye on her?"  
  
Jaken shrugged.  
  
"You're first guess in the way that hanyou's mind works is correct."  
  
"Sesshoumaru-sama." Rin nodded, then poured him a steaming cup of tea. "That's not exactly comforting."  
  
He settled across the fire from her, nodding. "It means that you've spent to much time near him."  
  
"He's a bad influence, my Lord."  
  
"It would seem so, Jaken."  
  
"So does that mean we're leaving this area soon?" No lingering pleasant memories for here. Only bad ones.  
  
"It does, Rin."  
  
She nodded, grateful, then got out the rest of the supplies.  
  
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Much later, she was curled in front of a slowly dwindling fire, drowsy and visibly trembling from the cold.  
  
"We need more wood, Jaken." Sesshoumaru's voice rolled over her like a wave, providing a momentary break in the tremors coursing down her body.  
  
She struggled to focus, and mumbled something incoherent even to her at Jaken's question. Something wasn't right. 'It must be exhaustion. I've never been sick before.'  
  
Sesshoumaru watched her, a frown of concern flickering across his features as she curled into a tighter ball and her shivering intensified. Silently he moved from his seat, finding a fur and draping that over her. He could tell it helped, however much it was. 'That hanyou would laugh if he ever saw me worried for a human.' Part of the reason why he did want to get out of there so much wasn't because Kikyou wasn't giving Inuyasha or Kagome a hard time, but it was because the latter two of the three were giving him a hard time-on finding a mate and settling down. They had suggested Kagura, and Kikyou, and even Kanna-who was just barely older in apparent age than Rin! He sighed inwardly.  
  
Rin shifted, her shivers again increasing.  
  
"Rin?" He made his way over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She was shaking hard. He thanked whatever gods were listening that he'd already stripped down to undershirt and the same kind of loose pants Rin wore as he moved the fur from her for a moment, then slipped in behind her.  
  
"My Lord-" He hushed her, putting one arm-the arm that was still good and useful without a Shikon shard-under her head as he wrapped the other one- the one with the shard-around her narrow waist.  
  
"Go to sleep Rin." Her hair was jasmine scented, making him drowsy as well.  
  
She nodded, relaxing, and he again inwardly thanked all gods that were listening as her shivers subsided, then disappeared altogether. He dozed himself, sleeping lightly.  
  
What felt like him only a few seconds later, Jaken came blowing in, clattering into a pair of metal pots, what firewood he carried collapsing to the floor. "Sesshoumaru-sama-"  
  
Both opened one sleepy eye, half-glaring at the frog-like demon. "Shut up Jaken," they said in unison, then settled back down, Rin's arm coming to rest in the crook of the one across her hip, and the other finding his larger hand and intertwining her fingers in his.  
  
Sesshoumaru chuckled inwardly at how he thought the others would react to this! 


End file.
